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About the Henry Watson Music Library

The Henry Watson Music Library is named after Dr. Henry Watson, a renowned composer and teacher born in nearby Accrington. He gifted the contents of his private library to the care of Manchester City Council in 1902. Watson's original collection (some 16,700 volumes) has been supplemented by many important donations and acquisitions since and has grown into one of the largest collections of music in any public library.

Library members can use our free on-line reference library, this carries a huge number of resources including online music such as Oxford Music Online and Naxos, where you can listen to music free of charge.